Hedgehogs GCSE
by Lucy Labrador
Summary: 4/4 of this series school stories. Sonic and the gang now take their GCSEs. This story takes place over year 10 and 11. Revised and Improved.
1. Chapter 1

**So, here it is, the last story of the series.**

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><p>It was mid august of 2009, five Mobians and a human girl were enjoying the summer holidays. This was the holiday before they would start their GCSEs.<p>

A blue hedgehog aged sixteen named Sonic had his arm around a pink hedgehog called Amy who was thirteen. They were both laughing at a story the human girl just told, she was thirteen also and her name was Maria, she had told a story of when she and her friend were young and living on the ARK. Her friend was called Shadow, he was a red and black hedgehog. The ebony hedgehog was pouting as Maria told the story, the story was about when a young Shadow had done something silly on the ARK and it was embarrassing. Shadow glared at another hedgehog who was laughing at him, Silver was his name and he was a white hedgehog who had come from the future and was fifteen years old, he had a girlfriend called Blaze. Blaze was a purple cat who was also from the future and from another dimension, in which she was a princess.

The laughing died down as there was a knock on the door, they listened out to hear what was going on. Their adoptive mother, Aby, went to open the door. Soon after The Commander of GUN came into the living room, the room they were all in. Shadow dived behind the sofa, he really didn't like The Commander. Maria looked at the hedgehog who was all curled up pretending he wasn't in the room. "We seem to have found some of your friends." The Commander said and he beckoned for someone to come in, whoever it was. Four GUN soldiers came in and each one had a hold of one Mobian each.

One was a red echidna called Knuckles, he was seventeen years old, he was presumably the last of the echidnas. Another was a yellow fox with two tails called Tails, he was ten years old but was very smart for his age. Another was a white bat called Rouge, she was eighteen years old and wore a revealing top, she had worked for GUN in the past, but not any more. Last was a scared looking little rabbit called Cream, she was only eight and she was a shy and polite little girl.

Shadow peeped his head up from behind the sofa to see who it was, as soon as he has seen he ducked back down again. The soldiers let the four of them go and left, the commander left too. Aby smiled, she had the rest of Sonic's friends, those two extra bedrooms could be put to use as there were more people, the house was huge and had six bedrooms. Sonic and Amy shared a room, Shadow and Maria shared a room, Silver and Blaze shared a room, Knuckles and Rouge would share a room and Tails and Cream would share a room.

Aby contacted the school about the four newcomers as they now needed a place in the school again. To do so the three eldest, would have to chose which subjects they would take for GCSE, Cream was in primary school. Sonic and the others had already chosen their GCSE subjects.

Sonic had chosen: Btech Sport (Double), Carpentry (Double) and PE.

Shadow had chosen: History, Triple science, business studies and ICT.

Silver had chosen: Btech sport (Double), applied science, PE and Art.

Amy had chosen: Child care (Double), Art, Food Technology and Health and Social.

Maria had chosen: Child care (Double), double science, Food Technology and Art.

Blaze had chosen: Re, Geography, Applied science, PE and Art.

Knuckles had chosen: Exactly the same as Sonic.

Tails had chosen: Engineering (Double), Triple science, Electronics and ICT.

Rouge had chosen: Dance, Geography, ICT, PE, ART.

Those who went to school through year nine were given their final level for each subject at the end of the year. (8 is maximum.) But, I'll just tell you the average level for all of the subjects.

Sonic: 5

Shadow: 8

Silver: 6

Blaze: 7

Maria: 6

Amy: 5

Now as they went onto GCSE's they were no longer going to get levels, they got grades instead. They were expected to get at least level five for each subject by the end of year nine… now they were expected to get at least a grade C by the end of year 11. Lets hope they all do well!

It was now the last day of the holidays and Sonic was sad as he would have to go back to school, meaning no more freedom to run during the day. He couldn't be free anymore, school felt like a prison to him. He looked outside to see that the sun was shining. He decided to go outside and run for a while before his time was up.

Shadow and Maria were in their room, spending time together. "School soon Shadow." Maria reminded him, Shadow growled, he didn't want to go back to school. Maria comforted him. "It's okay… it'll be fun as there are those new subjects we took."

"But… we're not going to be able to spend the whole day together…" Shadow said sounding sad.

Knuckles and Tails were in Tails' room, Amy and Cream were also in there. Knuckles looked out of the window to see Sonic running outside. He sighed, how typical of him. He saw Sonic arrogantly wave at someone else's window, it was the window of the room next door to them. A book was thrown and the arrogant one. "Stop it FAKER!" came Shadow's voice. Knuckles saw Sonic rub his head then carry on running. They were all quiet to hear Maria telling Shadow off. They heard him leave the room and go downstairs. The four of them looked out of the window to if Shadow had gone outside, yes he had, he was picking up the book and taking it inside.

In Silver and Blazes room were the owners of the room and Rouge. The girls were talking about what Silver called girly things, as Silver sat down on the bed looking bored. Silver left the room to see Shadow going into his room carrying a book looking annoyed. Silver went outside to catch Sonic running. 'Typical' he thought. Sonic was doing laps around the house, each time he passed Silver he said a word. "Hey… Silver… how… are… you… doing?" he said while whooshing past.

"Slow down Sonic!" Silver shouted. Sonic came to a halt by Silver.

"What's up?" Sonic asked.

"I'm bored… Blaze is with Rouge doing girly things!" Silver complained.

"Wanna race?" Sonic asked. Silver just shook his head and sighed, he went back inside. "Come on, I'll go easy on ya!" Sonic called inside.

That night they all went to bed early. "Sonic… are you still awake?" Amy whispered.

"No… so don't wake me up…" Sonic grumbled.

"I'm nervous about school tomorrow… it's going to be different because we have different lessons and teachers and-"

"Amy… I know… but can you just let me sleep, you don't want to be tired on your first day back at school, do you?" Sonic asked. Amy gave up and went to sleep.

In Shadow and Maria's bedroom, they were both lying in bed to go to sleep. "Maria…" Came Shadow's voice.

"Yes Shadow?" she answered nicely.

"I love you."

"I love you too Shadow." Maria said, sounding flattered.

"Maria?" Shadow said again.

"Yes…" she said, starting to sound annoyed.

"Are you nervous about school tomorrow?" he asked.

"A bit Shadow." she sighed.

"Maria?" Shadow asked again.

"Go to sleep Shadow." She sighed and turned over to go to sleep, so did Shadow.

Silver and Blaze were asleep already, so were Tails and Cream.

Knuckles and Rouge weren't going to sleep yet, they were making out on Knuckles' bed, they had no plans of going to bed very soon that night.

The next morning they all left for school early in the morning to catch the school bus. There were nine of them altogether, as Cream was going to primary School. As they all got onto the bus many comments were made about them, most of them were bad. It wasn't as bad as the previous years, Shadow was not happy about the comments. "When I rule…" he started mumbling to himself. The back was free where there was a big row of seats, they could all sit together now! As they were about to take the place a red headed boy in year seven sat in the middle seat of the row, the bus started. Sonic went up to him.

"Hey, buddy, there are plenty of free seats elsewhere…" Sonic said nicely. The boy didn't move, he just shook his head. "Come on guys…" Sonic sighed and they all went to find seats. They all had to sit separate to each other. Sonic with Amy, Shadow with Maria, Knuckles with Rouge, Silver with Blaze, but Tails was alone.

They got to school and went to the form room, they were now in year ten. They took their own side of the room, on tables of two they sat together. There was a table at the back that could fit three on, so Tails joined Sonic and Amy.

Diaries were given out for the school year. They had a different design to the older ones they had, as they had moved from Key Stage Three to Key stage Four. They stayed in the form room for the first two lessons before break so the teacher could explain everything to them.

It was the 31st of August 2009, the day they would start their GCSEs. After the long two hours in the form room they went outside for break. "Finally!" Sonic said as they got outside, "I was literally falling asleep!" they were now on the school yard. "Any new lessons today?" Sonic asked the others, they all looked at their diaries. "I have carpentry." he added.

"I have science today." Tails said, Shadow, Silver, Blaze and Maria all nodded in agreement, they had science too.

"Oh, I have art today!" Amy said.

"I have ICT… and PE… then maths… Aww, what a way to end the day… Maths!" Rouge said, complaining. Knuckles put his arm around her to comfort her.

"Maria… I'm not with your for PE… or science… only maths…" Shadow said sounding upset. Maria reassured him as always, the poor girl couldn't get a break from the clingy hedgehog. Once he even tried to follow her to the toilet, that ended in Shadow being told off.

They spent the break of break just chatting then went to the lesson, PE. Since is was GCSE and a new start, they all had a choice of what to do, they all chose to use the gym. They never knew the school had one. Their were weight lifting machines there, to help build muscle. "Not that I need it…" Shadow mumbled. He picked up the heaviest weight.

"You! Put that down! You're not allowed to use them!" the teacher shouted, Shadow let in clatter to the floor making several people jump, Shadow went to the other side of the Gym so he wouldn't get told off. Sonic tried the running machines and leg machines, Knuckles set his to maximum. The girls took it easy. Tails tried his hardest as he would be a teenager soon and he needed to build some muscle.

After the long workout they got changed and went to next lesson, some had science, Tails and Shadow were together in that, Blaze and Silver were together, Maria was alone, Sonic and Knuckles were in carpentry, Amy had art and Rouge had ICT. Shadow, as usual was naughty and had to stay in for detention.

At the end of the lesson the teacher tried to keep Shadow behind but couldn't as Shadow ran out before he could catch him. Shadow was hungry, he wanted to spend lunchtime eating with Maria, not sitting in a classroom, he would face the consequences next lesson.

Sonic's stomach rumbled, he waited for the others to show up impatiently, soon the others did show up, a part from Shadow, where was he? As Sonic was about to ask where, but a black blur passed them, it was Shadow of course. "Catch that hedgehog!" they heard Shadow's teacher shout. Shadow ran to them.

"I'm guessing you've worked out the situation… can't stay." Shadow said, he was out of breath. Just as he was about to leave, he left a hand grab his shoulder. Shadow's heart sunk, he had been caught. His ears drooped, he was hungry, he wanted to eat with his friends, he didn't want to have detention. He groaned with hunger as he was taken away. Maria looked sad, why did Shadow always have to get into trouble?

They all sat down, just eight of them this time, Sonic was happy that he could finally feed his empty stomach, though, I was quite annoyed that the school didn't sell chilli dogs, so he had taken a packed lunch instead.

Meanwhile, Shadow was being kept in the classroom, no matter the countless times he had said he needed the toilet. It was a good job he was lying, though the poor hedgehog never got a break.

Last lesson was maths, Shadow, Maria, Tails and Rouge were in set one, Sonic, Amy, Silver, Blaze and Knuckles were in set two. As soon as Shadow sat down, he felt the need for the toilet badly, Maria saw that he was looking uncomfortable in his seat. She whispered to him. "Shadow, do you need to-" she started to ask, Shadow squeaked, holding himself between the legs. "You should ask if you can go." Shadow shook his head, he was too embarrassed to. "I'll ask for you." Shadow tried to stop her but she had already gotten up. She went to the teacher. "Excuse me, but Shadow really needs to go to the toilet, could he go?" She asked politely, the teacher looked at Shadow who's cheeks were going red with embarrassment.

"Can't he ask himself?" The teacher said to her. Shadow knew that he was doomed, Mr Himsworth, his maths teacher didn't like Shadow at all. Shadow wished he hadn't been such a nuisance the past years. Maria sat down looking sad.

"He says two things, one, why don't you ask yourself, and two, you can't go until you've done your work." she said. Shadow picked up his pen and started to work.

"I bet you'd been a good boy now Shadow." Rouge teased.

"No… I do NOT regret it, I regret nothing." he said and carried on with his work.

With Sonic's set they were all working quietly, Sonic looked at the door that was open, to see a black blur go past it. He sighed, he knew Shadow would need the toilet, it was last lesson and he had been in detention all lunch time.

Shadow got to the toilet, the walk down the stairs was awful, why did he have to be on the top floor for the lesson? So, he got into the boys toilets, got to the urinal, he was about to relive himself when he saw someone in the corner he was by, he looked to his side to see "MEPHILES!" Shadow cried, he stepped away from him, not being able to go now. Mephiles was leaning against the wall smiling evilly at Shadow. "B-but I sealed you…" Shadow said with a shaky voice.

Mephiles started to walk towards him, Shadow headed toward the door. Mephiles jumped toward him. Shadow closed the door making Mephiles knock in into the door instead of Shadow.

Shadow opened the door and looked inside, there was purple liquid dripping off of it. "What's going on…" Shadow breathed. A clawed hand grabbed his ankle, Shadow stomped on the hand which was forming out of the puddle with his other foot. The puddle evaporated into the air, and went down the drain of the sink. Shadow ran back to his lesson.

"What took you so long?" the teacher asked. Shadow sat down again by Maria. "Well?"

"I… I…" Shadow couldn't think of an excuse, he squeaked again. From this Maria knew he hadn't been.

"What's going on Shadow… you still need to go, why didn't you go?" she whispered to him.

"M-Mephiles…" Shadow said.

"Mephiles?" Rouge asked, after hearing this. Shadow explained his fight with Mephiles, as the rest of them sat in shock, Shadow put his head on the desk, he was stressed. He would have to wait now until he got home before he went. The lesson ended very slowly for Shadow. The bell went, they got their stuff and went to the bus. They all managed to sit together on the way home.

"Guys, we have a problem." Shadow said to Sonic and the others, "He attacked me when I went tot the bathroom… and he escaped…"

"Why didn't you kill him!" Sonic shouted.

"I really had to go… and I still do…" Shadow groaned, Sonic gave a chuckle, and shadow glared at him. "We need to do something about this."

"We should call GUN, they're the ones who locked Mephiles away." Silver said. They all nodded in agreement, they all got home and told Aby about what happened, she called GUN.

"Hello Commander, Shadow wants to speak to you." Aby said over the phone.

"Me? NO!" Shadow said, Aby gave Shadow the phone. "H-hello Commander… how have you been keeping Mephiles secured?" Shadow asked nervously.

"Under 24 hour surveillance in the sceptre of darkness, why?" The Commander asked.

"He's escaped… he attacked me!" Shadow said.

"What!" The Commander exclaimed. He ordered his men to check on Mephiles. They soon had an answer. "You must be wrong, Mephiles is still trapped inside the sceptre of darkness."

"B-but he attacked me." Shadow said. There was a knock at the door, Aby went to open it. Shadow saw that The Commander was at the door. Shadow hung up the phone.

"Are you lying to me hedgehog?" The Commander said, walking up to Shadow putting his mobile in his pocket. Shadow shook his head and stepped back from The Commander. He held himself between his legs, he still hadn't been. "Come with me Shadow." The Commander said, Shadow tired to run but he was dragged outside by The Commander to the GUN van.

"What's he doing?" Sonic asked. Maria looked worried. About ten minutes later Shadow came back in looking sad.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" Maria asked. "What's going on?"

"They're treating me like an experiment again. They made me give them a urine sample… and I have to do it every day." Shadow said, sadness in his voice. Maria looked shocked. "Unless I'm with them… I'll always have to wait for them to come… before I can go…" his said, looking horrified.

"They're controlling when you go!" Sonic asked, shadow nodded, Sonic went into hysterics, which made Shadow attack Sonic.

"Shut up faker!" Shadow shouted at him, getting tears in his eyes. Sonic carried on laughing, Shadow grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently, "I said shut up!" Shadow shouted again. Knuckles decided to pull them apart, Maria comforted Shadow.

"So Shadow, what happens if you pee against their orders?" Sonic asked, teasing him.

"I get punished, even if it's an accident." Shadow said. "Not that I've had an accident before!" he added. Maria went to say something but Shadow stopped her. "And on the ARK doesn't count…" Shadow whispered to her. He went to his room to get changed. "I'm having a shower, do NOT disturb me, I'm feeling really stressed right now. I could do with some time alone." Shadow said as he made his way upstairs.

"Is The Commander even going to look into this Mephiles incident?" Sonic said to the others.

"No, probably not, we're probably going to have to look into it ourselves." Rouge said. "But not tonight, I have homework."

"Yeah, me too." the others said. Once Shadow had finished in the bathroom, the rest of them had their turns too. At dinner time everyone was talking, except Shadow, he ate his dinner quickly and left.

**Lucy Labrador**


	2. Chapter 2

The next day they all woke up at the same time and got ready for school. The day, 1st September 2009, a Tuesday. Today, the lessons were different. Normally they would have five different lessons, but today some had only two lessons all day and some had the same lesson all day.

Sonic, Knuckles and Silver had Btech Sport all day. Tails had engineering and science all day. Amy and Maria had Caring all day. Shadow had History and science. Blaze had RE and Geography. Rouge had Dance and Geography.

Shadow was not happy about the fact that he was not with Maria all day. In fact, those who had Btech and Caring were in the collage all day. So it was only Shadow, Tails, Rouge and Blaze in the school.

At Break time the three of them asked Shadow about exactly what happened in the van with GUN. Rouge figured that Shadow would tell since Sonic wasn't around to mock him. "Why should I tell you. That matter is private," Shadow said and walked away from them. Rouge caught up to Shadow and grabbed his shoulder.

"I know you want to tell someone… tell us Shadow, please!" She pleaded.

"Get off me!" Shadow said harshly and walked ahead, he stopped as Blaze walked in front of him, and blocked the way using her fire powers with her hands. Shadow had no choice but to tell. "Fine!" he growled. They all sat down on a picnic bench in the middle of the playground together. "But none of you can tell anyone this! Understand?" Once they all agreed he started the story.

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><p><em>The Commander pushed Shadow into the van, there were a couple of scientists in there, Shadow wondered what was going on. A couple of GUN soldiers were holding Shadow still. "What ever is going on… make it quick… I really have to go."<em>

"_That's what I wanted to talk to you about Shadow." The Commander said. Shadow froze, they were going to do something horrible to him. He tried to escape but their grip was too tight. "Shadow, you are aware that you are an experiment… you belong to us… so we can do what we like with you?" _

"_What! That's not true! Go away! Let me out!" Shadow screamed out. _

"_We want to examine everything your body does and compare to the results on the ARK to see how much you've changed." The Commander said. "We need a urine sample from you everyday, we need to collect every drop you produce."_

"_Th-that's disgusting! It's… ridiculous!" Shadow cried out, "You Can't do this to me!"_

"_Now, we could send scientists to follow you all day and record your behaviour and collect any thing you produce… or you can wait until we arrive at home." _

"_But… I cant wait that long… all day?" Shadow was worried. "But it'll be humiliating to have people asking me to pee all day… I'll go for the second option!" Shadow said, looking distressed and red in the face. _

"_Good, now we need a urine sample." he said. Shadow went in a cup he was given, he sighed with relief. _

"_Hmm… straight away from this we can see that you drink too much." a scientist said. Shadow growled. "Okay Shadow, see you in the morning, don't drink too much."_

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><p>"Aww Shadow, were sorry." Rouge said.<p>

"They're right, you do drink a lot." Blaze said. Shadow scowled at her.

"Well, I'm not today just in case I have an accident." Shadow mumbled.

"Shadow… why do you act so clingy around Maria?" Rouge asked. Shadow's cheeks went red, he got up to leave. "Shadow, there's no need to be embarrassed about it, just answer the question."

"I've said enough today!" he turned his back to them as he didn't want to see that his cheeks had gone red. He looked at his watch. "Time to go." he said and walked off without them.

"That's right, it is time to go." Rouge said. They got up to leave and all went their separate ways.

At the collage Sonic, Knuckles and Silver were in tech and Maria and Amy were in caring. Soon it was their break time. They all met up to eat. "This is so cool, it's so much better than school! We can just do what we want and there's just a McDonalds down the road!" Sonic said cheerfully, his stomach rumbled, he was now craving a McDonalds. "If only I had brought money instead of a packed lunch." he said groaning. "And this place sells chilidogs but I can't have any!" he moaned, seeing the chilidogs getting sold in the canteen. Sonic carried on sulking, until Maria came to him,

"Sonic, I brought some money as well as my packed lunch. I'll give you some as long as you don't tell Shadow. He can get jealous." Maria said cautiously.

"Thanks!" Sonic said, he took the money and hugged Maria. He then went to buy a chilli dog. He came back looking smug. He sat down and took a bite. "Mmm…. Wait 'till Shadow hears about this." Sonic sniggered. Maria looked sad.

"Ahem… what did Maria just say?" Amy said sounding angry.

"Oh yeah… sorry…" Sonic said and took another bite. "I'll keep quiet." he started to snigger again. "I wonder if Shadow's wet himself yet?" his smile fade when he saw Maria looking even more upset.

"Sonic, do you realise what you've just done?" Amy asked him sounding irritated. "You've just used Maria's money… and you're talking trash about her best friend… I'd say you have to pay her back now… and apologise."

"I didn't realise… I'm sorry Maria… I was being selfish!" Sonic exclaimed.

"That's okay Sonic but now you've reminded me of the awful situation poor Shadow is in… I'm worried about him." She said, worry in her voice and eyes.

"He's should be fine… Shadow's strong." Sonic said. "Hey Maria… you know when Shadow said he had never had an accident before… is that true cause it sounded like something happened on the ARK."

"No Sonic, I'm not telling you anything, it's not fair on Shadow." Maria said sternly and folded her arms.

"So there is something to tell." Sonic sounded eager to know.

"Please tell!" Silver begged. The three boys looked ready to listen. Maria looked worried, she didn't want to embarrass Shadow but they all looked so eager to know. Maria shook her head. "Please!" Silver said again.

"But that'd be betraying Shadow…" she said, they all gave her big giant puppy dog eyes. "Okay…"

"YES!" they all cheered then listened to the story.

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><p><em>A young Shadow was in a science lab being tested on. He was surrounded by many scientists recording his behaviour, taking tests, using needles on him. It upset Shadow a lot, he sat up in a high chair, and he was only a little hedgehog, the height scared him too. He was begging them, "Please let me go. it's urgent." came out a whiny voice of a child. <em>

"_No, we'll only be ten more minutes, you can wait." said one of the scientists, Shadow gave out a little whine, he was desperate. _

"_I think you should let him go, if he says it's urgent, then it's urgent." Maria said, she was standing at the door of the room. _

"_I said we'll only be ten minutes." _

"_Ten minutes? I can't wait that long!" Shadow cried. "Please…" _

"_That's not fair, let him go." Maria said, getting worried for Shadow. Shadow broke free, jumped off the chair and started to run for the door. _

"_Unlock the door!" he screamed, Maria did as he asked. _

"_Don't he needs to finish his testing!" one the scientists said but Maria was having none of it. She tried to follow him but he was too fast. Soon she found him standing alone, in a little puddle sobbing his little eyes out. _

"_Maria…" he sobbed. "I couldn't make it." _

"_Don't cry Shadow… it wasn't your fault." Maria comforted him and took him to get cleaned up, she would tell her grandfather about this as soon as possible._

* * *

><p>Sonic and the other's didn't laugh, for once they felt sorry for Shadow instead. "Wow…" Sonic said sounding surprised. "Those scientists were hard on Shadow."<p>

"Yes, if they had just let him go their would have been less trouble." Maria sounded angry, obviously still upset about it. It was now time to go to the lesson so they all got up to leave.

When they all got home Shadow looked very uncomfortable. He sat down in the living room, wiggling in his seat, he looked at the clock . "T-two hours to go…" he groaned.

"Two hours? When are they coming?" Maria said as she came in and sat down by him.

"Six o clock." Shadow said, Maria gave him a hug. 'should have gone for the first option.' Shadow thought to himself. Maria got up and walked to the door. "W-where are you going?" Maria looked guilty.

"To the bathroom…" she said reluctantly. She saw Shadow cringe, he felt so jealous of everyone, they could go to the toilet. "I'll stay here if you want…"

"No, go… there's no need for you to do that." Shadow sighed. Maria left the room, soon after Sonic came in. he looked very smug, he sat down beside Shadow. Shadow looked at him in a confused way.

"Poor Shadow… couldn't make it." Sonic said in a teasing way. Shadow was now really confused, he hadn't wet himself, then he realised, his eyes went wide. "But it wasn't your fault…" Shadow punched Sonic in the face and Sonic plummeting to the floor.

"She told you!" he shouted. "You asked her for the story didn't you!" Sonic nodded on while still on the "Who else knows!" Shadow shouted urgently.

"Silver, Knuckles and Amy." Sonic smiled. Shadow let out a cry of frustration. Everyone knew and they were bound to tell the story to the others.

"I hate you faker! I hate you!" he shouted in Sonic's face, Sonic was cowering on the floor. Maria came in to see this, she realised what was going on, and immediately regret what she had done.

"Shadow, I'm sorry!" he cried.

"No Maria, it's not your fault… it's his fault for asking!" Shadow shouted right in Sonic's face, holding his fists up at him.

"Okay man I'm sorry!" he got up to leave, as he left the room he leaned over to Maria. "Thanks for the chilli dog babe…" and he was gone.

"Y-you brought h-him a chilli dog?" Shadow's voice was breaking, he looked paranoid.

"No Shadow… I lent him the money… and he's paying me back…" She said, Shadow could see through it. "I'm so sorry Shadow… he just looked so sad… like you do sometimes… and I told him not to let you know because it would upset you…"

"Okay Maria… it's not your fault… you did a kind thing… even though I do hate Sonic…" Shadow's eye twitched on the word 'hate'. "It's okay… but he is the one who is trying to break up our friendship! He wanted a way to make fun of me so he asked you to tell him the story!" Shadow looked really stressed. "If I didn't have to go right now… I'd beat the crap out of him…"

"I thought he was a hero…. He doesn't act like one." Maria sighed.

"He is a hero, he just wants to humiliate me for what I've made him go through." Shadow sighed, closing his eyes and putting his hands to his face. "Ugh… I just can't wait for GUN to get here…" he grumbled into his hands. "Let's go to the bedroom." he said to Maria, so hey two of them went to their bedroom.

In Knuckles' and Rouge's room, they were telling each other the stories they had been told that day. Rouge told the story of Shadow being taken into the van and Knuckles told to story of when Shadow was on the ARK. Hearing this amazing story about Shadow, Knuckles went to tell Sonic about it. They both laughed to themselves about it. "I have an idea…" Sonic said. He told Knuckles the idea, then they went to do it. They went to Shadow's bedroom door. "Shadow, they're here!" Sonic called into Shadow's room. Shadow shot out of the door and down the stairs, he was gone! He then came back up the stairs looking very annoyed, he went back into his room slamming the door.

At the dinner table Shadow felt like he could explode, he really didn't want to eat. "Shadow, you don't have to finish it if you don't want to…" Aby said.

"That's okay…" Shadow struggled, and carried on eating.

"Hey Shadow, here's a cup, wanna pee in it?" Sonic joked, holding out his cup. Shadow gave him a very hateful look. "Shadow it was just a joke." Sonic laughed Shadow started to growl at him.

"Sonic… please don't annoy Shadow, he's going through a tough time." Aby said. Shadow looked at his glass of water yearningly. He wanted to drink it so much, but it could make his situation worse. He looked at Sonic with hatred again, he took a sip of his water, thinking of revenge. It would be so sweet, he just had to wait for the right moment.

Once dinner was finished there was a knock at the door, Shadow rushed to open it, it was The Commander, Shadow was taken out to the van. The others looked out of the window to see what was going on but the van closed so they couldn't see. Five minutes later Shadow came back out looking relived, he came inside and sat on the sofa looking relaxed. "Are you feeling better Shadow?" Maria asked, she sat down by him.

"Yeah Maria, much better, they'll be back tomorrow morning. That night they went to bed, and Shadow was feeling tired, and dreaded the long wait he'd have to get through the next day.

**Lucy Labrador**


	3. Chapter 3

The day was 2nd of September, a Wednesday. The school routine had become normal by now for the gang and it was only the first day. Today they got good seats on the bus and had a good start to the day. The first lesson was RE, they all sat together that lesson in the long row in the back.

Second lesson was science. Maria had a physics teacher called Mr Pascal. He was a really humorous teacher, with a great sense of humour. As he was writing some notes down on the board someone threw a bouncy ball to the front, and bounced off the white board in the front, near Mr Pascal. Everyone, including Maria expected him to shout and scream, for that could have hit him. "Do not throw things in my lab!" he said sternly, he then was the bouncy ball. "Oh bouncy ball!" he sounded delighted and picked it up, the whole class was laughing. Maria let out a small giggle, teachers were never like this in her time. School was much more relaxed now than what it was like in the 1950's.

Once the class had ended their laughing fit everyone quieted down, and got back to their work. Mr Pascal wrote down questions on the board and asked the class to answer them. "You have 20 minutes to do the questions, we'll go through them at this time." he said and stuck an arrow on the clock, at the 12. Maria giggled and so did some others, what a strange way to show the time the class had to be finished at.

As Maria was working, she began to gaze around the room and noticed something strange. "Sir… if it's not rude to ask but… why is there a calculator stuck to the ceiling?" Maria asked politely.

"Because it's fun!" he said smiling, he gave out a small laugh. It was true, the teacher's calculator was stuck to the ceiling. He used a long stick to press the buttons, because it was fun.

There was only a few minutes left until they had to finish their work. The teacher put a ruler on the clock, measuring the gap between the time now and the time they had to finish. "You have this much time left!" he announced and showed the class the distance on the ruler.

Once they finished the questions, the teacher told them the right answers, so they could correct any mistakes, he wrote the correct answers on the board. "Okay, number A." he said and started.

"Number A?" Someone questioned laughing. He nodded, smiling and carried on writing on the board. He tried to do so but the pen ran out so it didn't work. He threw the pen to the side, it clattered to the floor, nearly landing in the bin by his desk. He tried another pen and it didn't work, so he did the same to that one. He did the same to many other pens causing a lot of laughter until he found a decent pen. He finished doing question A. "Okay, number next one!" he announced.

Maria starting to gaze around the room again and saw various pictures on the wall, their was one of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out. Maria liked this teacher and was glad she would have him again later on that day.

At Break they all met up with each other. "Hey Maria, you seem really happy." Shadow said to her.

"I have a really funny physics teacher." She giggled, then explained the fantastic lesson she had just had.

"Aww man, I wish I had taken double science!" Sonic complained.

"Hmph… you're lucky, you have a great teacher… I have a horrible one, he hates me!" Shadow complained too.

"That's only because you were drunk in his lesson." Tails said.

"WHAT?" Maria screamed in shock.

"Tails! Why did you say that?" Shadow growled, he held his fists out to him. Tails ran to hide behind Sonic.

"Shadow, you were really bad while I was gone… weren't you?" Maria said sounding disappointed. Shadow looked ashamed of himself. "Drunk in school? How could you?" she sounded very upset, Shadow was speechless, he turned around to sulk.

"I'm sorry…" he said with his back to her. "I… was lost without you. I was depressed. I was… pathetic! I'm sorry!" he said getting tears in his eyes.

Next lesson was English for all of them. Shadow and Maria were in the same class but the teacher didn't let them sit together. "Why not!" Shadow shouted.

"Shadow, just do as she says." Maria said to him.

"You're sitting on register order, go on, to the front now!" the teacher said.

"I'll change my last name to Robotnik if I have to!" Shadow said angrily and sat down at the front in a huff. "Then you can try and separate us!" he shouted at her.

"Shadow, don't be like that, it's very rude-" Maria was interrupted.

"I think I can handle this Maria, sit down." She said, Maria did as she was told. Shadow was in a very foul mood now, he sat in the front by Blaze and Rouge who were also in the set. As the teacher passed him he caught her attention.

"If I'm really good, will I be able to sit by Maria?" Shadow asked hopefully.

"No, now if you don't finish your work or you'll be back at break time to do it!" Shadow tried to retaliate. "Quiet!" she shouted. Shadow growled at her, a growl that couldn't be heard, but you could tell he was doing it by the look in his face. "That's it you are having a B1!" she said, another consequence for Shadow. Shadow was silent, he looked to Maria who was disappointed in him again. "Your first lesson with me is not a good start." Shadow didn't bother to try and retaliate this time. He just sat looking sad, with big sad puppy dog eyes. Shadow just did his work, then lay his head on the desk to rest. "No sleeping!" she told him.

"But I'm finished!" Shadow complained. She made him sit up, Shadow did so with a groan, he really didn't like English now.

In Sonic's class, Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Silver were in the same class. They all say down on a table together, they didn't have to sit in register order like in Shadow's class. Sonic sat with a bored look on his face. He then looked uncomfortable. "Ohhh… shouldn't have had that hot chocolate this morning…" he complained looking at the time there was loads left. He crossed his legs,

"Ask to go then." Amy said.

"But that's embarrassing… but I have to pee so bad…" he sighed.

"Stop it, you're making me need it!" Silver said. Sonic gave a mischievous smile, "No way Sonic! I'm not going down with you!" Sonic started to make water sounds. "Sonic! This is unfair! Stop it!" it was too late. "Now I have to go!" The two of them were now in trouble, they had to wait for the end of the lesson.

Lesson four, Sonic and Knuckles had PE, Tails and Shadow had ICT, Amy and Maria had Health and Social, The rest, Silver Blaze and Rouge had ART.

Sonic wasn't performing well at all in PE, because he really needed a wee. "Sonic, you're doing rubbish today! What's that matter with you?" the teacher said.

"I…" Sonic didn't want to mention that he needed the toilet. "...guess I'm tired."

"You look fine! Now put some more effort into it!" he told him. Sonic groaned and tried his best to move around, he would have to wait, but just until the end of the lesson.

The class eventually ended and they went inside to get changed. Sonic was relived that he could finally go to the toilet, he got changed quickly and waited, there was now literally one minute left. "Come on…" he said, looking at his watch. The bell went and Sonic was running, dodge the thick crowds. Everyone was going the opposite way to him so it was a struggle. He finally found them. "Eugh… it stinks… I cant go in there…" he complained, "But I really gotta go…" he covered his mouth and nose with his hand and went inside. He started to think, this was the place Shadow as attacked by Mephiles. He thought about if he would return, so he hurried up and left. Several minutes later he met everyone else up for lunch, feeling so much better he smiled. "Silver, didn't you go?" Sonic asked, he hadn't seen Silver even near the toilets.

"Nah… I went after third lesson, there was no need to wait 'till now Sonic." Silver said. Sonic felt really frustrated then, he had waited an hour longer than he needed to.

They all finished their lunches and went outside, they had another half an hour to go. Shadow thought it was very boring, and he would have died of boredom if it wasn't for Maria. The seven of them were together not bothering anyone when a boy in the year above them came over to them and started to tease Maria. "Hey, why do you hang around with a bunch of animals? You're even holding hands with one of them you freak! Get some real friends!" he said harshly to Maria.

This made Shadow furious. Shadow looked at the boy with anger and hatred while Maria was close to tears. She looked to Shadow to see he was beating the boy, but instead of the boy crying or running off like people would normally do with Shadow, the boy was fighting back! Shadow cried out as the boy grabbed his tails and bent it back, snapping it out of place. Other children gathered around to see the two of them fight.

Unfortunately for Shadow, by the time the teachers got there, they had missed the tail snapping, and by the time they managed to get through the crowds all they saw was Shadow kicking the boy, he was dragged inside. Shadow screamed out to be let go, the crowds left and a few teachers helped the boy. "We've got to help Shadow… it wasn't fair. He Didn't do all of the damage." the rest agreed and they all ran inside to see the teachers trying to get him into the head teacher's office but he was struggling.

"No! He had it coming! Let me go!" he was shouting, trying his best to stay out of the office.

"Shadow's right." Maria said aloud. The teachers turned around to see all of Shadow's friends. One of the teachers sighed.

"Stay out of this." they said.

"But the boy was bullying me and you know how Shadow can react to things like that… and so does everyone else in this school. And look what he did to Shadow's tail!" she said, the teachers looked at his tail, it was bent out of place.

"He's broken it." said one of them, giving it a prod.

"**Don't touch it!**" Shadow wailed and moved away but pulling himself along the floor.

"We're going to have to get it checked." Shadow got up and tried to run away, but he was caught and taken into the office while screaming for them not to touch his tail.

"Well that didn't help much… and now he' just going to be angry at us for mentioning his tail." Sonic said.

In the office Shadow was getting told off for doing what he had done. He knew exactly what they were going to say and how they were going to say it as he had been in that office and been told off so many times before. Once they finished their rants he left and Maria was waiting for him outside the office door. "I'm so sorry Shadow." Maria said, Shadow just walked past her without saying anything. "Shadow?" she said and followed him.

"Leave me alone." he said an ran way from her. Maria went outside to fins Shadow but he was nowhere to he seen. She came to Sonic and the others.

"Where's Shadow?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. He didn't want to speak to me, he just ran away." she said sounding worried.

"Don't worry about Shadow, he always does that." Sonic said, not sounding bothered.

"I'm sorry Sonic, but _I_ know Shadow best, not you! I've known him since he was born, so don't tell me Shadow does and doesn't do!" she shouted and ran off to look some more.

"Sonic…" Amy sighed. "When will you learn not to be so half hearted and upset people?" Sonic gave a 'WHAT?' look, as if he hadn't done anything.

Last lesson most of them had science, Tails had a lesson with Shadow, and he noticed that Shadow hadn't turned up. The teacher however, thought nothing of it. "Probably gone off to get himself drunk again." he sighed. Despite what the teacher said, Tails was worried. Shadow was in such a foul mood, he may have gone off to do something evil. He had to get a message to Sonic somehow… but he was the only one in bottom school, everyone else was at top.

"Sir." Tails caught the teacher's attention. "I really think you should look into Shadow's absence, he could be doing something dangerous."

"I've already reported it, the main office should know when they check the registers… no doubt his absence will be reported to GUN." Tails sighed with relief, no more worry as Shadow tried to hurt any one, or even his self, GUN would be there to stop him.

Shadow was in fact hiding in the toilets that were in the corridor right outside the classroom he was supposed to be in, he really was a sneaky little hedgehog. Sitting in the toilets was so tempting, he needed to use them, but he couldn't, so he left to stop any more temptation. As he was leaving the toilets, the teacher saw him. "Hey!" he screamed to Shadow, Shadow ran as fast as he could out of the building before he was caught. He ran to the far end of the field, nearer to top school now, the teacher wouldn't chase him up there. It was just a matter of time before he was reported.

Shadow was feeling so stressed, so many bad things were happening. He lay down on the grass and closed his eyes, he felt a bit more relaxed now, until he felt his neck being compressed by clawed hand, he chocked and opening his eyes, grabbing at the hand. "Mephiles!" he wailed in fear and struggled to get away.

"I have you now hedgehog…" he sneered, he picked Shadow up by his throat. Shadow choked out in pain.

"Please Mephiles, have mercy…" he rasped. Mephiles tightened his grip, Shadow did a chaos spear, it didn't work. Shadow began to cry out in pain, as Mephiles' claws were digging into him.

"My my… you've gotten weak." Mephiles smirked. Shadow tried to pull away. "I wonder how easy it would be to just kill you now." Shadow started to feel weak as he was being deprived of oxygen. He gave up his struggle and fell limp in Mephiles' hand.

"What do you want with me?" Shadow said weakly.

"Revenge…" Mephiles hissed. "At this precise moment in time, I am escaping from the sceptre of darkness ready to go back in time and torment you…"

"That's how you hadn't escaped when you attacked me… you fiend!" Shadow growled.

"The Commander doesn't care about me… all he cares about is getting you into prison. He's waiting for you to one step wrong, so he can lock you up forever. Let's take revenge on the military together Shadow… and I may think about leaving you alone."

"No way… never!" Shadow's voice was sounding weaker and his speech came out slower. Mephiles growled and snapped his neck, he dropped Shadow's limp body onto the floor.

A minute later GUN showed up to see Shadow laying on the ground. "Decided to take a nap did you?" The Commander said, and nudged the limp Shadow with his foot. He didn't awaken. "Taser him." he ordered his men allowed. He was expecting Shadow to get up after hearing that. The soldiers did as they were asked, Shadow still didn't move, despite being electrocuted. The Commander picked the hedgehog up and examined him, "He's dead." all of the soldiers gasped. "Well, he would be if he were mortal… his neck needs fixing, lets get him to the base."

"How do you think it happened?" a soldier asked as they carried him to the van.

"I have no idea but I guess we'll find out." The Commander said, and took Shadow away in the van.

That lesson some of the teachers had the lesson off, so they all met up in the staff room. They had head about Shadow's absence. "No surprise really." Mrs Higgings, Shadow's English teacher said. "One lesson I've had with him, and I know he's only going to cause trouble for the rest of the year. it's like he's got the devil in him… the worst student I've had."

"I know what you mean… he's always answering back… and trying to prove to me that the human race is inferior." said Mr Jones his games teacher.

"He used to be like that with me, for about three years." Mr Himsworth said, "But then this girl called Maria arrived and she sorted him out. If I let them sit together, Shadow behaves."

"Really?" Said Mrs Higgs. "Maybe I should let them sit together next lesson. He kicked up such a fuss to sit by her…" She smiled with relief, her problem had been solved. She looked out of the window to see Shadow laying down on the field. They were on the second floor, so they could see quite far out.

"Well, that's a good hiding place." She said sarcastically. Then they was him being attacked by Mephiles. "Who the hell is that?"

"We should go and help him." Mr Jones declared. They ran down the stairs, outside and on to the field, by the time they had got their though, it did take a while to get around the school and across the large yard, Shadow was gone and they saw a GUN van drive away. "Oh God…."

On the bus home, Shadow was not there, of course, though the others had no idea what had happened to him. Maria looked very worried. "Don't worry Maria, Shadow has probably run off by himself.. He can do that sometimes." Sonic said. Maria just looked sulky, she wouldn't bother getting angry with Sonic again. "You never know… Shadow might have gone home…" he said, trying to cheer her up.

"He wasn't in last lesson." Tails said, This made Maria even more worried.

"Hehe… he should most definitely be home by now… curled up by the fire…" Sonic said nervously, hoping it was true. "With a nice soft blanket…hehehe… and a hot chocolate…" he started to snigger, he was back to mocking Shadow, and his softness. "I hear… Aby babied him."

"She did? But that's my job!" Maria sounded jealous.

"Now she's kind of jealous of you since you took Shadow from her…" Sonic teased. Maria began to feel bad and guilty.

"I hope Shadow's okay." Rouge said. "You all know Shadow… and he can do many reckless things when he's upset."

"When the bus stops. Lets get home as quickly as possible." Maria said urgently, she really wanted to see if Shadow was at home.

When they got through the door, of the house, they looked into the living room to see a hedgehog curled up by the fire, with a blanket around him. "See… I was right… hi Sha- holy sh-" the hedgehog turned around and he had green eyes and pale skin. Maria screamed and Aby ran inside to see why.

"What's the matter, it's only Mephiles." Aby said. "I found the poor thing in the street he was hurt so I took him in."

"Aby, you don't remember the last time Mephiles came can you?" Sonic asked.

"What are you on about… none of you have ever met Mephiles before." Aby said, it was now obvious, Mephiles was playing mind games all over again.

"Have you seen Shadow?" Maria asked.

"No… why, he hasn't shown up yet?" she asked. Maria began to cry.

"Don't worry Maria, Shadow is basically indestructible, nothing can get to him." Sonic said, Aby had now left the room. Mephiles began to smile evilly.

"So… what do you think happened to Shadow then?" he said mischievously.

"You've done something… I'm calling GUN…. You won't be here for much longer…" Sonic growled, Mephiles snapped his fingers. "Mephiles, buddy, hi!"

"Mephiles! What have you done to Sonic?" Amy screamed, Mephiles did the same to her, then he did it to the rest one by one, Maria was last. She looked at him in fear. She ran to her room, wishing Shadow would be there, Mephiles had brainwashed everyone and it was only a matter of time before he got her.

**Lucy Labrador**


	4. Chapter 4

The next day everyone acted as normal even though Shadow still wasn't home. It was as if no one cared, a part from Maria of course. Mephiles had brainwashed everyone except for her. Maria had no idea where Shadow was and had no idea if he would ever come back. Mephiles was coming to school with them that day, it was like he had replaced Shadow.

Shadow was slowly awakening from a deep sleep. "Where am I…" he mumbled, when he came fully to his senses he realised he was strapped to a table, unable to move. He let out a cry of terror, what had happened to him now?

"Ah, Shadow I see you're awake." came The Commander's voice. Shadow looked over his body past legs to see The Commander standing by his bare feet. Shadow had noticed as he looked at himself, he was completely naked.

"What are you planning to do to me?" Shadow said with a bit of worry in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sure you already know that I absolutely hate your guts." he hissed. Shadow gulped, he didn't know what The Commander was going to do, but whatever it was, it was going to be really bad.

Today everyone started the day with Maths, since Shadow wasn't there, Mephiles took his seat, and sat be Maria. Maria didn't like this at all, she was now terrified. "Sir, please could I sit somewhere else!" she asked urgently.

"Maria, what's wrong with that place? Is something bothering you?" the teacher asked.

"Y-yes… I feel a bit sick… could I sit by the window…" she lied, she was let out of her seat to go and sit by the window. She did feel sick though, sick with fear.

Shadow was being connected to some sort of machine, he shook with fear, though he couldn't move much as he was restrained. He trembled with fear, there was no way out of this punishment he was going to get.

Second lesson for Maria was Art, Mephiles didn't have Art, Maria was glad of that. This lesson they were drawing, and while doing so Maria was chatting with some of her friends, she had other friends than Shadow. "Hey Maria, is that Shadow you're drawing? Looks a bit scarier than he usually is…" she stopped as she noticed that Maria was looking at the paper, shaking uncontrollably, she suddenly tore up the paper in a rage and threw it into the bin, she sobbed uncontrollably, as her mind had trailed off she had subconsciously drawn Mephiles. It was like he had controlled her, or gotten into her mind. "What's wrong?" her friend asked.

"Nothing…" she calmed down as best as she could. "I'm just really stressed lately." she was lying, it was all because of Mephiles, but didn't want to tell anyone, in case he hurt her.

Shadow began to shake and breathe really quickly as The Commander walked back into the room. "Would this be a bad time to say that I'm REALLY sorry for the all of the evil things I've ever done and that I'm really sorry for all of your losses on the ARK?" Shadow said really urgently and nervously as the Commander came closer to him. He walked over to the controls of the machine, "Apology accepted?" Shadow tugged on the straps desperately. "No?" Shadow said, his eyes going narrow, his voice broken in fear.

"I'd shut up if were you hedgehog …. I can finally get my REVENGE!" and on that last word he turned on the machine and turned up the dial, Shadow began to cry out in agony.

Third lesson Maria had Science, she didn't gave that amazingly funny Teacher that lesson, but the teacher she had was nice, so it wasn't all bad. Though, even if she did have the funny teacher all of the giggles would not make up for how she was feeling right now. She sat down, feeling safe, Mephiles wasn't in her class.

Fourth lesson Maria had food tech with Amy. She was glad to have someone to talk to. "Amy, what do you do when you miss Sonic?" Maria asked her as they were doing their work.

"Well… I just think of all of the great times we've had together, and look forward to the next time I'm gonna see him!" she said gleefully. "Because Sonic is amazing so no matter what happens he'll be okay." she got imaginary hearts in her eyes, she absolutely adored him, and Maria could see that. Maria thought about this, some of that was true about Shadow, Shadow was amazing and could survive anything. Her realising this perked her up a little and she started looking forward to the next time she would see him.

Shadow began to cry. "Please, why are you doing this? HOW are you doing this? It's not fair!" Shadow sobbed.

"It's sucking out all of your chaos energy, then reinserting it into your body… about a thousand times a second." he said evilly. This made Shadow go pale.

"That does not sound good…" he groaned, his voice sounding tired.

"Don't worry, it won't kill you… just cause you pain- WHY AREN'T YOU SCREAMING?" He burst out and turned up the dial, it made Shadow scream even louder.

Last lesson Maria had science, it was nearing the end of the day and she was hoping that when she got home Shadow would be there, run to her giving her one of his loving hugs. She sighed as something in her mind told her that's not what would happen and everyone would continue to ignore the fact that Shadow was still away, all under Mephiles' control. "At least he isn't in here now." she thought.

"Excuse me sir." said another teacher coming into the classroom. He was dragging a dark hedgehog behind him. "Could Mephiles stay in here, he's reusing to cooperate and disrupting my class!"

Maria felt like crying, Mephiles was put on the side table, right by her table. Maria tried not to make eyes contact with him but it was so hard, his eyes were so interesting. She could see that Mephiles wanted to use mind control on her, he was going to click his fingers, but she didn't wasn't to forget Shadow. 'Think, what would Shadow do?' she thought. She couldn't attack him, she put her hand up. "Uh, sir, c-could I go to the toilet?" she asked urgently.

"You had all of lunch time to go, are you really that desperate?" Maria nodded, she put on the desperate act, like Shadow would, sure it was embarrassing, but it would get her away from Mephiles for a while. "Okay…" he sighed and Maria ran out of the classroom. She then slowly made her way to the toilets, she would take her time. She looked into the mirrors over the sink.

"Ugh… Mephiles is driving me crazy…" Maria shook, she looked into the mirror again, and could see the dark demon like hedgehog. She froze. "Why wont you leave me alone…" she sobbed, she turned away from the mirror hoping she would not see Mephiles there in the room but there he was, standing in the middle of the room. "How are you doing this?"

"I can create multiple bodies, I'm here, however I am still in the class room." he said.

"G-get out, this is the girls toilets!" was all Maria could think of to get rid of him.

"How sexist of you…" Mephiles sounded hurt. "And I thought you didn't like to upset anyone."

"Please! Just go away!" she started to sob uncontrollably with fear. "It's all your fault Shadow's gone isn't it? I hate you!" she screamed. She ran back to the classroom.

"Maria, you took a while." the teacher complained.

"I'm really sorry but, I feel sick… c-could I go and see the nurse please?" she asked politely, but acting sick.

"You do look a bit pale." the teacher admitted.

"Yes… please I feel awful." she said, but she wasn't lying. Mephiles was making her feel ill from all of the shock.

"Okay then, be sure to catch up on all of the work you missed then." The teacher said, Maria got all of her stuff and left.

Shadow was still screaming and groaning from the pain. "Please, I cant take it any more… I'm so sorry." he cried.

"It's too late for apologies now hedgehog." he was about to turn of the dial to give Shadow more pain, Shadow held his breath, bracing himself but a GUN soldier came in, Shadow sighed, his torment would not come yet.

"Sir, you have a phone call!" he said and gave The Commander the phone.

"Oh, hello Maria." he said, Shadow's eyes went wide. Shadow was about to shout to her but The Commander covered his mouth.

"W-where is Shadow… I need Shadow." Shadow could hear Maria saying,

"We don't know where Shadow is… but I'm sure he's fine." The Commander said reassuringly, Shadow narrowed his eyes at him. He growled, he was not fine, he struggled to get his mouth free and shout to Maria. The Commander finished, hung up then took his hand off Shadow.

"I hate you…" Shadow hissed. "You call her back and tell her the truth!" he demanded. "When she finds out you did this to me, she's going to HATE you forev-" Shadow gasped, as The Commander turned up the dial. "When I get my revenge on you…. You'll never walk again!" Shadow choked,

"What do you think you're going to do? Break off my legs?" The Commander said in disbelief.

"NO! I'm going to-" Shadow choked again as The Commander tuned up the dial even more.

"It wont happen hedgehog." The Commander said cruelly. "You know, Maria sounded pretty scared… something might have happened…" Shadow looked afraid for Maria.

"You'd better get your sorry ass down there and see what's wrong." Shadow threatened, but it only earned him another jolt of pain.

That night Maria lay in her bed, she couldn't sleep, she was too worried about Shadow. "Ooh.." she groaned and got up she opened the door and headed for the bathroom. "I have no idea how Shadow could hold it through the night…" She mumbled to herself, remembering what GUN was making him do. She stopped and froze, Mephiles was standing at the bathroom door. "Please…" she pleaded, Mephiles smiled at her mischievously.

"You may go, if you're brave enough to pass me…" Mephiles breathed.

"Why are you doing this." she groaned.

"When I show Shadow what I'm doing to you, it will break his little heart." Mephiles said in delight, as if hurting Shadow was a drug.

"Leave Shadow alone!" she said strongly, she sighed deeply, looking into the bathroom longingly, "Please…"

"You can go, just walk inside…" he said, holding his hand out as if he was going to click his fingers. Maria took a few steps closer, but Mephiles got closer to clicking his fingers. It was not use, Maria groaned and went back into her bedroom. She got into bed wishing Mephiles would just go away.

"I have to be strong…. What if Shadow was to see me like this, I have to act as if it's not bothering me…" she said to herself and went to sleep.

**Lucy Labrador**


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning everyone was relived that it was Friday,at the breakfast table Maria didn't look very comfortable, Aby noticed this. "Maria, you may be excused if you like." she said, noticing Maria was wiggling in her seat.

"Oh… no… it's not like that it's just…" she looked embarrassed, everyone all knew she needed the toilet.

"Looks like she misses Shadow so much, she's taken his place." Sonic smirked, teasing her. Maria looked at Sonic angrily.

"A bit rude for a hero, aren't you?" she asked angrily.

"That's just Sonic, he still hasn't matured yet." Rouge said, now she was teasing Sonic.

"I AM mature." Sonic whined.

"Prove it, if you can go one whole week without being stupid or making any jokes like that… we'll all give you a fiver each!" Knuckles said confidently.

"Knuckles, I was saving up!" Rouge said angrily and slapped him.

"Yeah, I know, he's not going to make it." he said, rubbing where he had been hit.

"I will make it!" Sonic said eagerly. "This time next Friday I will be…" he started to count. "£40 richer!"

"Deal!" Knuckles said, they shook on it. Then, everyone settled down again to eat.

"So girls, do you want to come out shopping this weekend, girls day out?" Aby asked.

"Yeah… I think I should get some new underwear." Amy said, hoping to get to Sonic. Sonic jolted, trying to hold back his laughter. "Which is in no way funny…" she added, Sonic's eye twitched.

"Yeah… I need to started buying bigger bras." Blaze said, Sonic was in agony, he really wanted to just blurt out a joke about it. He was tapping his foot on the floor and fidgeting.

"Yeah, I think I need some new trousers, one of mine has I rip… you know, right between the legs…" Rouge started to explain, Sonic started to scratch his nails on the table.

"M-may I be excused." he asked Aby desperately.

"Of course Sonic." she said, Sonic ran out of the room, he couldn't take any more. The girls started to giggle, this would be a fun week.

With all of the commotion at breakfast, they were running late. "Come one everyone, you need to leave for the bus in two minutes!" Aby shouted from the door, they all made a scramble, to get their shoes on and stuff together. Maria tried the toilet before she left, she ran upstairs but Mephiles was there.

"Grr!" I'll just go in school!" she said and ran downstairs again. They all left.

Shadow awoke from an uncomfortable nights sleep. "Ugh… what happened?"

"I drugged you… so you'd sleep… after all you need your energy for today." The Commander said cruelly.

"C-could I user the bathroom first?" Shadow asked nervously.

"What do you think my answer will be?" the commander said, sounding annoyed. Shadow sighed and thought himself, he knew it would be a no, but it was worth a try.

Maria got into school and ran inside, she got to the toilets but couldn't get in! "Locked! Why?" she complained. There were signs on the door saying it would be open at break time and lunch time. "Ung… that's only two hours away, I'll be fine…"

That day they had an assembly, the head teacher explained to them why the toilets were locked. People would hide in them in lessons so, they were locked them. Maria now knew exactly how Shadow felt when he needed to go.

First lesson was food teach for Maria and Amy. "Are you okay? You look a bit… oh, you still haven't gone yet, have you?" Amy said. "Couldn't you have gone in the house?" Amy asked.

"I thought that… I could wait until school." she lied. "I don't think I'm going to make it until break…" she gasped.

"Is something wrong Maria?" the teacher asked. "You look a bit pale…"

"Yes…" she said breathlessly.

"You look like you need to go to the -" the teacher started.

"YES!" Maria burst out.

"Well… looks like and emergency so I'll take you to the staff toilets… okay?" the teacher asked. "I know you wont be able to use the student toilets for a couple of hours now… so you might as well come with me."

"Y-yes… please…" Maria sighed. She was taken to the staff toilets, she ran inside and closed the door quickly, enough said. Amy was sitting in the classroom to see Maria come back looking refreshed a few minutes later.

Shadow was still stuck with The Commander. "I really hate you… you know…" Shadow hissed. "You're no better than me… you say I'm bad… but you're doing exactly what I like to do… take revenge!" Shadow growled.

"Yes… but what I'm doing is legal… what you like to do as revenge is not." he said smartly.

"What… so torturing is legal? You guys make me sick!" he tugged to get free, no result.

"Tug all you want Shadow… but you should know, you're not going to get any where." The Commander sighed. Shadow just glared at him in hatred.

Second lesson was science for Maria, she still didn't have the funny teacher again, which made her frown, she could have really done with a cheering up. Though she was very sure Mephiles wouldn't show up again this lesson.

The third lesson was maths and Maria froze as she came into the room, Mephiles was already sat down… and she couldn't use the sick excuse again. "Come on Maria!" the teacher called, wondering why she was just stood in the doorway. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing… I just… zoned out… that's all… I'm sorry." she said and came in, she tried to sit by the window again, but the teacher corrected her, she would have to sit by Mephiles.

"Don't worry Maria… I wont hurt you…" Mephiles purred. Maria did not like his tone. "Besides… I just want to play with you." his voice made her shiver, she gasped as he was about to click his fingers. She was about to scream ***CLICK* **

Maria could still remember everything alright… so what had he done? So he was just playing with her, NO! She suddenly felt a very strong urge to… go to the toilet. Mephiles chuckled quietly to himself. Maria knew she wouldn't be allowed to go so she just bit her lip and got on with her work.

Fourth lesson was Welsh, that dropped everyone's mood. "Aww… come on, Maths… then welsh! How could things get any worse!" Sonic complained. Tails frowned, he like Maths… Sonic saw that Maria was moving a lot in her seat. "Now… don't tell me you haven't been yet…" Sonic said in disbelief.

"Sonic… I'd be careful if I were you… gotta be careful of what you say." Amy said. Sonic was silent.

"Maria, are you okay? You've been quiet the last couple of days." Rouge said sympathetically. "Something bothering you?" Maria shook her head, still wiggling in her seat, she was careful not to make any eye contact with Mephiles. Rouge was sat right by her and she whispered to her. "I think there's something wrong… do you need to go again?" she whispered to her, no one heard.

"Yes… this is so embarrassing." she said.

"It happens to all of us every now and then… you just hang in there." she said, to boost her confidence, Rouges words did make her feel a bit better.

Shadow was still in agony, he cried out for mercy. "I think you deserve a break rodent…" The Commander said, he turned the machine off. Shadow was still breathing heavily, he felt his eyes shut.

Shadow saw a vision in his sleep, he head Mephiles' spine tingling laugh. "You!" Shadow shouted, pointing at him.

"Mwahahahaha! Do you want to know exactly what your beloved Maria is going through?" he asked nastily.

"What have you done to her you sick freak!" Shadow shouted to him, he suddenly found him in his and Maria's room, Maria was in bed late at night and she looked worried. She then got up and went out of the room. "MARIA!" he called.

"Shut up you idiot… she can't hear you." Mephiles said. "It's like talking to a previously recorded message, it wont answer you…" he breathed, is made Shadow shiver. Shadow followed Maria, she was headed to the bathroom, but Mephiles was in the way, Shadow watched in horror as Maria begged and Mephiles teased.

"Mephiles you sick bastard!" Shadow shouted as he saw Maria walk back into the room looking desperate. "How dare you!" Shadow could hear Mephiles cackling in his mind.

There was a flash, and Shadow found himself in the dining room, everyone was eating breakfast, this made his stomach rumble like crazy. "I could really do with some food…" Shadow groaned. He watched as Sonic made fun of Maria. And the bet they made with him. "I wish I were there to see him lose, but not before I get to kick his ass, how dare he do that to Maria!" Shadow said in rage, he saw then that everyone was running late, and that Maria tried to go. But still, Mephiles was blocking the way, so she run to school.

Now, Shadow felt really sad. "At least she can go when she gets to school." he sighed. "Why would you do this?" he asked Mephiles. No answer. "Why would you do it!" he was now shouting. "That's no way to treat a woman!"

"Didn't you do that to Lucy… you dragged her out of school when she obviously needed-"

"OKAY!" Shadow shouted out. "I regret it all! I was stupid! If she had taken me back I would have said sorry."

"Oh, this is where it gets good now…" Mephiles cackled. Shadow could now see Maria running to the toilets, but they were locked. "How convenient…" he chuckled, Shadow froze, how could this happen to her? "She has always wondered how you've been able to wait… and now she knows…"

"Because sometimes, you have to. But this is just ridiculous, she DIDN'T have to wait! It's only because you went and messed with her! You're a twisted freak! If you were here right now I'd choke you to death!" Shadow shouted.

"Oh really?" he clutched Shadow's neck, only his hands was visible. Shadow began to struggle, the rest of Mephiles' body began to materialise, and the world around them turned to emptiness. "I'm here, now go ahead." Mephiles purred. Shadow tried but he was lack oxygen, and couldn't reach Mephiles. Mephiles began to sigh, "While you try and reach me… how about you watch the BEST part of today…" the world became clear again, they were in the Maths room, Maria no longer looked desperate, though she did look scared.

Shadow then saw Mephiles 'playing' with Maria, Then Shadow snapped, the Mephiles of the real world, clicked his fingers, and made poor Maria uncomfortable again. The Mephiles of the dream world got a beating. "CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow screamed, the explosion threw Mephiles back.

"Oh, look at what you have done now…" Mephiles cackled. Shadow began to gain consciousness again to see the room he was in, torched. He had chaos blasted in real life too. He was hoping to see The Commander dead, but no one was in the room. The Commander ran in looking furious.

"What have you done to my machine? My amazing torture machine!" he cried out. Shadow hissed, he jumped onto The Commander from the table, tackling him to the floor.

"I told you I'd get my revenge!" Shadow hissed in his face, holding him down, he bared his fangs. He threw The Commander against the wall, there was a crack.

"AH! My back!" he cried.

"That's the problems with you mortals… you humans, your age always holds you back! We've both lived for about the same amount of time and yet I am much younger!" Shadow gloated, grabbing The Commander's neck. Shadow looked behind him to see soldiers flood into the room. He dropped The c

Commander and turned around, many guns were pointed at him, so he decided to give up, he put his hands up over his head, for Maria's sake. If he was to die not if would break her heart. "Hmph… do what you like with me… I'm done here." Shadow smirked, then he felt a barrel of a gun touch his back, his heart sank. "Maria…" he breathed, he heard a loud bang and everything went white.

Maria charged thought the front door. Past everyone and up the stairs. She still hadn't gone yet, and to her relief, Mephiles wasn't at the door of the bathroom, she ran inside and too her horror Mephiles was inside, sitting on the toilet with the lid down, as if it were a chair. He looked smug, with his arms folded, he crossed one leg over the other, looking confident. "You can go…" Maria groaned, she knew there was a catch to it, "I you can remove me."

"How did you get here before me?" Maria sobbed.

"You know what I can do… and… the multiplying trick… I'm here and yet I'm downstairs with everyone else. The perfect alibi for if you try to tell…" he hissed.

"Why are you doing this… I need to go… really bad… please." She begged again.

"So what will it be?" Mephiles asked, Maria tried it, she stepped forward, he was going to try the finger clicking trick. Maria bit her lip there was no way she could go up to him… without forgetting about Shadow.

"I'll just have to go at school tomorrow…" she sighed.

"Tomorrow? But it's Saturday tomorrow…" he breathed, Maria's heart nearly stopped, she ran into her room to cry, how would she solve this?

Shadow lay in his world of unconsciousness, the dream world. "He shot me… he f***ing shot me…" Shadow said in disbelief. Then there came Mephiles' laugh,

"Update Shadow…" he purred.

"What have you done to her now?" Shadow roared, he clenched his teeth, he was ready to lash out at Mephiles in anger. A new world swirled into place, he was inside the house, Maria pushed passed everyone to get in, Shadow ran up the stairs after her, she ran into the bathroom and the door shut. "Well? So what? I'm not going to like… peak…"

"Don't worry, there's nothing to 'peak' at…" Mephiles' voice sounded in his head, he went into the bathroom, what he saw was much worse than him peaking. Mephiles was inside, preventing her from going.

"You're threatening to brainwash her…" Shadow said in shock. "She shouldn't do this… why cant she just go… forget about me… all I'm doing is making her suffer!" Shadow held his head going crazy. Maria then ran to the bedroom, Shadow heard her crying inside.

"The shop… I can go to the shop, there are some toilets along the way." Maria said, her face lighting up, she went downstairs to ask Aby if she could go.

"That's great… you can get me some milk while you go there." Aby said and gave her the money. Maria ran out of the house to get there. Relief was just around the corner.

Shadow found himself in darkness again. "Such a shame…" Mephiles said, "I enjoyed playing with her…"

"You are disgusting, I want to kill you!" Shadow said. "No, I wish I could make you mortal, so you would know what it's like to have to eat… and go to the bathroom… or rather… not go to the bathroom…" Shadow hissed.

"If only hedgehog…" Mephiles sighed, "Oh, looks like you're waking up…" Mephiles' voice was fading as Shadow's eyes opened.

There came a deep groan from the dark hedgehog in the bed, he noticed he was in a hospital, a nurse came in to treat him. "How am I alive… I'm not even in a coma? How?"

"The bullet didn't damage much, it was lodged in one of your ribs, rather than in your heart." Shadow went pale. "It's been removed though… so you'll recover within a few days… it would take you weeks if your weren't the ultimate life form."

"That's such a relief 'cause I really wanna get home and kick Mephiles' ass!" he growled. The nurse left, not hearing what he had said.

A few hours later The Commander came into the room, he had a couple of bandages on. Shadow began to growl at him. "Get the F*** out!" Shadow growled.

"Shadow, I've come to tell you that experimenting on you has ended, and we can drop the charges on you attacking me if you don't let Maria know I hurt you." he said.

"Forget it! I'm telling her!" Shadow shouted at him.

"You're asking for a lifetime at prison island aren't you rodent?"

"Did you even know that Mephiles is loose?" Shadow shouted at him.

"I'll send some soldiers to check…. How would you know anyway…" He asked suspiciously.

"He can talk to me through my dreams… and he showed me… he's done some bad things to Maria…" Shadow sighed.

"What has he done?"

"Why don't you CAPTURE that son of a bitch and ask him yourself!" Shadow shouted at him. "This is all your fault, you know why? I was attacked by Mephiles, he snapped my neck and instead of asking me how I got hurt, you just went straight to your useless revenge!" Shadow kept shouting at him furiously. "And you still don't care that he's loose, all you care about it hurting me!" Shadow slammed his hand down in the bedside table. "And how are you even standing, I broke you bloody back!"

"You didn't brake it." The Commander smirked, rage started to build up inside Shadow. "The same as I didn't kill you… so lets call it even… I wont tell if you wont and we'll return you home when you're better."

"What do I tell them all then?" Shadow asked.

"You think of something." The Commander said and left. All the rage left Shadow and all that was left inside him was sadness, he let the tears flow as he was finally alone, he couldn't wait to get home to see Maria.

**Lucy Labrador**


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, Shadow went home, he had healed exceptionally quick, he knocked on the door and to his annoyance, Sonic opened it. Sonic ran into the living room covering his mouth, he had obviously thought of a joke about Shadow and was dying to say it. "It's Shadow!" Tails said in surprise.

"Where's Maria?" Shadow asked urgently.

"She went out shopping with the other girls, she really missed you, Shadow." Tails said. Shadow suddenly had a menacing look on his face.

"Right Mephiles, come out right now Mephiles, and I'll reduce beating you to dust, to beating you to a pulp!" he sounded furious, and slightly crazy. There was no answer.

"Ugh… Shadow… there is no Mephiles." Tails said.

"He's gone and done it again the coward!" he came into the living room where all of the boys were.

"Shall we call one of the girl's mobiles and call them all home?" Silver asked.

"No… let them have fun." he said and saw Sonic, he knew all about the bet.

"Hey Shadow." Sonic said shakily.

"Oh, Shadow, we made a bet with Sonic-" Silver started but Shadow stopped him.

"I know… and I'll give you £10 if you make it through the week!" Shadow said, smirking.

"Thanks Shadow." Sonic said gratefully, trying not to sound cocky.

"Why thank me, you're not going to get it, you still have six days to go." Shadow said confidently. Sonic felt like crying. Shadow then felt and awful emptiness in his stomach. "Ugh…" he groaned, "I need to get something to eat." he said feeling his hunger return. He went to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich. "Such a relief to eat again." Shadow said. After that he went to the bathroom to have a nice long bath.

As he was relaxing, letting his fur soak. he heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Shadow growled,

"Oh, Shadow…" Sonic's voice came. "How long are you going to be?"

"A while, I'm having a long soak in the bath." Shadow sighed, he could hear Sonic squeaking outside, "You don't find that funny, do you?"

"No Shadow…" he croaked, trying to hold in his laughter and left.

The boys, Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Silver were still in the loving room talking. "Shadow hasn't told us why he disappeared." Knuckles said.

"We'll ask him once he's finished." Tails said. Shadow then came in looking refreshed, his fur was all fluffed up and clean, he sat down looking relaxed. Sonic was desperate to tease him now.

"Please guys, just this one…" he whispered.

"No money then!" knuckles said, Sonic folded his arms and pouted. He thought of the £50 he would have on Friday.

At 3 in the afternoon the girls all came home, all of the boys were still sitting in the living room, the girls came in after putting their bags full of shopping down. "Ahh, feels so good to be able to sit down again." Amy sighed happily, Sonic gave his seat up for her.

"Knuckie…" Rouge teased. Knuckles growled then gave his seat up for her.

"Hey cream, buy anything nice?" Tails asked, giving up his seat for her. Then Maria came in.

"MARIA!" Shadow yelled and ran to her, they hugged each other tightly. "Maria, I need to speak to you… in private." Shadow said, so they went up to the bedroom. "Maria, I know what Mephiles did to you." Maria gasped. "And it was sick and horrible, so I'm going to teach him a lesson, how dare he do that to you!"

"Where is he now?"

"Decided to go off and play 'non existence' again, the coward. The others don't remember him at all… it's just you and me." Shadow said,

"Shadow… I'm scared." Maria hugged Shadow tight.

"Me too." Shadow admitted quietly, "There's no way of knowing what he's going to do next. But, if you see of hear from him, tell me, and I'll sort him out." Shadow said bravely.

"Thank you Shadow…" Maria said, giving him another warm hug. "Shadow… why did you go?"

"Mephiles hurt me… bad… but GUN fixed me up." Shadow said, that was no lie, they did fix him up, before they hurt him.

"That's nice of them… I'm guessing your tail is all better then." she said.

"Don't even remind me of that…" Shadow growled. "It's my stupid reaction the that that got me into this mess… and which got you hurt by Mephiles."

"It's okay now Shadow… we're both safe." Maria said softly, she kissed him softly on the forehead. "I think we should go downstairs… or the others may start to assume things…" Maria said. They went downstairs.

"What were you two doing up there… you took a while." Knuckles said, Sonic covered his mouth, he really wanted to say something.

"NO! Nothing sexual." Shadow said sounding annoyed.

"I wasn't thinking that." Sonic lied, his voice trembling, he took a gulp of his soda. He remembered his need for the toilet. He groaned.

"What's wrong Sonic?" Amy asked.

"I tried to go to the bathroom a few hours ago but FLUFFY here wanted to pamper himself." Sonic teased "So I couldn't- OH!"

"YOU LOST!" Knuckles cheered. Shadow smiled, he didn't have to give up £10 now.

"No! Give me one chance! Please!" Sonic begged.

"We're only on the second day Sonic, and you failed already, so NO!" Knuckles cheered. Everyone got to keep their money, and Sonic couldn't prove that he could be mature.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Sonic said sounding annoyed. He ran to the door of the living room, Amy blocked him.

"Ladies first Sonic." Amy said.

"But…" Sonic squeaked.

"Yeah, that was long day out." Rouge said following Amy, Cream and Maria and Blaze followed too.

"So I have to wait for you to ALL go?" Sonic asked getting panicked. They nodded. Sonic sat down pouting, "Not fair, I claimed it first…" Sonic said. "I swear you girls are gonna be the death of me."

The weekend flew by and they got back to school, Monday break times were boring. "Lets go inside for a snack." Sonic suggested. "We should get in quick before all of the tables are taken up."

They all ran inside, "Free table!" Sonic cheered, they ran to it, to see a young boy beat them to it. It was the same little boy with red hair from the bus. He sat right in the middle. "DUDE! AGAIN?" Sonic complained.

"What's your problem." Knuckles said.

"Move it, there are plenty of other free tables!" Shadow shouted.

"Shadow!" Maria scolded him.

"Look buddy, is there any reason you wanna sit here?" Sonic asked in a friendly voice, the boy shook his head, but didn't show any signs of moving. "I know, if I buy you a cookie, will you move?" Sonic asked. The boy nodded, "That's the spirit!" Sonic said he bought him a cookie. The boy took it and left, they all sat down. "That guy is annoying!"

**Everyone is happy now, even the annoying boy, he got a free cookie!**

**Lucy Labrador**


	7. Chapter 7

Everyone was surviving pretty well through their GCSE… year ten ended and in the beginning of year eleven, they had work experience. Shadow was not happy about his placement, "I don't want to do work experience with GUN, I've already experienced work with them!" Shadow pouted, they were sat on Maria's bed, Shadow laying by her while she played around with his quills.

"There, there, Shadow… it'll be okay… they can't hurt you, because if they do you can talk about it in you class speech." Maria assured him, patting him on the head. "Or you could do your's with me if you like?"

"N-no thanks…" Shadow said, Maria was doing her work experience in a florist, Shadow didn't want to go there, he sighed, why did he always have to be with GUN.

So they did there work experience for five days, Shadow had quite a tale to tell. In English everyone was called up to the front of the class to give their speeches one by one, eventually it was Shadow's turn. "I really don't want to go up…" Shadow said.

"Do you want to stay in a break time?" the teacher asked.

"N-no…" Shadow said and walked to the front, he didn't have any notes to read from, the teacher noticed this.

"Where are your notes, you were supposed to make them for homework." the teacher exclaimed.

"Shadow doesn't need notes, he's good at telling his experiences!" Maria said proudly.

"Thank you Maria…" the teacher sighed. "Would you like to start Shadow?" She asked, Shadow nodded.

"How I got my work experience was probably very different from any of you…. You probably all had some sort of choice, however, I didn't." Shadow said, and went into detail.

* * *

><p><em>There was a knock at the door and Shadow was called down the stairs, "Not you!" Shadow exclaimed as he saw who it was, it was the commander, Shadow was hurled outside, the door shut. "What are you-"<em>

"_Hedgehog, I believe you have work experience soon, so I'm guessing you'll need a placement. You can be my assistant for a week." _

"_No way!" Shadow refused. _

"_You don't have a choice!" he growled, Shadow had no choice but to give in, he would have to be the commander's assistant._

* * *

><p>"So… Yeah…" Shadow said. "I didn't get a choice… anyway, the first day of the work experience I was feeling pretty nervous, I braced myself for the awful week to come. I arrived at the nearest office block, The Commander was there waiting for me, in his little rented office. You see GUN HQ is over in America… so they have to rent the office to stay here… I arrived and he was waiting for me."<p>

* * *

><p>"<em>You're late hedgehog." he said, when Shadow arrived at the door, The Commander was facing out of the window. <em>

"_I was told to be here at 8am… it's 7:55am…" Shadow said nervously. _

"_I was expecting you to be here a lot earlier, it is you first day after all." he said, turning around slowly. Shadow gulped. "I need you to do me a job… you need to bring some paper work down the hall for me." _

"_Oh, okay." Shadow said, The Commander pointed to giant pile of files in the corner, _

"_Those?" Shadow said in disbelief, he went to pick the heavy load up. _

"_I want you to be done and back here by 8am…" The Commander said. _

"_But that's in two minutes!" Shadow cried, he couldn't do this. _

"_Should have gotten here earlier then." he said, Shadow carried the files off as quick as he could without dropping them and got back. "8:01... I'm not satisfied." _

"_Can I just ask, what did you do with your last assistant? Why isn't her here-"_

"_He hung himself." The Commander said emotionlessly. Shadow's heart dropped, at least he's only be working her work five days, that assistant must have been working there for about a year or so. "Such a shame too, he only worked for me for two days… then I got the awful news." Shadow's eyes widened._

* * *

><p>"As you can see I'm still here, didn't hand myself after two days." Shadow sighed. "But I was tempted to do so after the third though…"<p>

* * *

><p><em>Third day Shadow got in a 7am, "Early enough for you?" Shadow asked. <em>

"_You can NEVER be too early, but I'm satisfied at the least." The Commander said, Shadow smiled with relief. "I never said it was good!" The Commander said when he saw his smile, _

"_Ugh…" Shadow sounded nervous, he had drunk coffee this morning to wake him, he had gotten up early, and now it had reached his bladder. "Could you show me where the bathroom is?" Shadow asked nervously. _

"_No, I have a job for you." the commander said, he gave him a list of jobs._

"_But there are loads of jobs on here… this could take me all day." he groaned. _

"_Better get started then." the commander said cruelly. _

"_Oh crap-_

* * *

><p>"Shadow, no swearing!" the teacher said.<p>

"But that's what happened!" Shadow complained, and carried on.

* * *

><p><em>Shadow managed to finish the jobs by lunch time. "Looks like I'll have to find that bathrooms myself." Shadow said., he searched around the area, they were no where to be found so he returned to the commanders office, "Done!"" he announced, "Could you show me where the bathrooms are now… please!" <em>

"_I have some more jobs for you." The Commander said, pretending not to hear his request. Shadow sighed and took the list._

* * *

><p>"Shadow time is getting on, you're not supposed to be telling us a story, you're supposed to be giving us a speech!" the teacher said looking at her watch.<p>

"Fine!" Shadow growled, "So overall I absolutely hated my work experience, and I hate the commander's guts even more now!" he said quickly, this made the teacher frown.

"Any good things about it?" she asked.

"Oh, the last day when I got to go home." Shadow said, there was a few giggles from the class. "That wasn't a joke!" he said angrily.

"Any questions?" the teacher asked the class, there were a few questions,

"What was your worst moment?" a girl at the front asked.

"The fourth day, I was running late, meaning I arrived on time instead of early, so he threw a book at my head. A big heavy one." Shadow said. "I just wanted to hurt him so bad…"

"Did you cry?"

"N-no" shadow blushed, he was obviously lying, and Maria knew that, Shadow saw the look on her face, "Uhg, fine I did cry!" there was a big 'Aww' from the class. "But I'm no softie, didn't cry that much."

"Okay Shadow, thanks you." the teacher said and let him sit down, there was a round of applause,

"Well done Shadow." Maria said, Shadow just sat down, hoping he would get a good mark.

In November they all had mock exams, they were to practice for the real exams. They all did pretty well, but one's attitude was, "They're not real, it doesn't matter!"

"Don't say that Shadow…" Maria said.

"But, I hate them! You're in that cursed hall for up to two hours, and you're not even allowed out for the bathroom."

"Shadow, the trick is, don't drink a swimming pool before you go in!" Sonic said.

"Could try that…" Shadow said feeling embarrassed.

Then came December. "SNOW!" they all cried when they looked out of the window. Snow was very rare for Pembrokeshire. They went to school, there wasn't enough snow to shut the school, but there was enough for a- "SNOW BALL FIGHT!" and there was chaos in the playground,

"Ha this is better than-" *smack* Sonic got him in the face. He threw another snowball back, hoping it would hit someone, he was ready to go now.

Silver was using his psycho Kinesis to threw many snow balls with ease. Some of the teachers joined in too, like the saying says, 'if you can't beat them, join them', so they did.

During this snowball fight, Maria got hit, this made Shadow angry, and went into the snowball throwing rampage.

Christmas soon came, and then the new year. "Ahh, back to school, can't get any better than this." Sonic said sarcastically.

"There's only six months left in school." Amy said to him.

So, they went back to school. At break, they hung out as usual, then it was 20 past, time to go to lessons, they made there way up, but there were a lot of people on the field. Mr Sesil, their head of year, and Mr Jones the deputy head, were calling everyone off the field, no use, no one moved, they were being ignored. Sonic and the others watched in amusement as Mr Thomas, another teacher who was high ranked, shouted onto the field in a big booming voice. "LAST ONE OFF THE FIELD IS GAY!" at the top of his voice, everyone ran off the get to their lessons, Sonic and the others were in hysterics, and they went to their lesson too. It wasn't every day you would hear them say that.

At lunch, Shadow alone, as Maria was with her other friends, and he saw Lucy alone, and she was crying, sitting in the corner, sobbing her eyes out. "Do I speak to her?" Shadow asked himself. "H-hey… is something wrong? Do you want me to find your boyfriend for you?" Shadow asked nervously from quite a distance. She just sobbed harder. "Oh, you didn't break up… did you?"

"YES!" she screamed, Shadow as shocked, he sat down by her, against the wall.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay… you have your friends… you have me… remember that time a few years ago. You helped me get through school, so it's my turn, I'm gonna help you get over your boyfriend." Shadow said confidently.

"How?"

"I dunno… but I'll try my best." Shadow said, thinking. "Look, you have holidays coming soon, it's short term… we could… go out for a walk or something… I'll take you out some time."

"Okay…" she said wiping her tears, Shadow put his arm round her.

Maria started to look worried, she hadn't seen him all break. " I think I was ignoring him…" she said worriedly. She ran to find him. She then found him, with Lucy, she ran to him. "Maria, this isn't what it looks like!" Shadow said in a panic.

"Aww, Shadow, you're so sweet… this is how you can prove to The Commander that you're not all that bad… you have a heart." she took a picture of him. "Are you alright dear?" Maria said, Lucy nodded, Maria had guessed the situation. "Believe me, in a couple of weeks, you'll be great friends with him." she said.

When it was nearing the long two week Easter holidays, they became exited, "Hey guys, we have our year photo today."

"Great, what pose do you think I should do?" Sonic asked, he did his thumbs up and grin. "This one?" the others just sighed at Sonic's cockiness.

"I hope I'll be by you Maria." Shadow said.

They went for the photo, the whole year was on a giant stair case like thing, so they could see everyone. Sonic and the others were in the front as they were the shortest, Maria was put by them too.

They all brought their prom tickets and leavers hoodies. Maria got a bright blue hoody, Shadow got a black one, Sonic got a dark blue one, Amy got a red one, Tails got a yellow one, Rouge got a purple one, Knuckles got a red one, Silver got a white one, Blaze got a lilac one.

"Ahh, perfect." Sonic said when they got their year photos delivered, "Perfect pose every time."

"Exams are so close guys." Silver said.

"Time to revise." Blaze said, Maria and Tails agreed, Amy reluctantly joined, the rest were dragged into study.

Soon it was the prom night, the girls wore dresses and the boys wore suits. "Ugh…" Sonic complained, "I look so posh." something Sonic didn't like .

"I like it Sonic." Amy said and they entered.

"So this is it, last day in school… Silver said. "Now all it is exams."

"Lets just enjoy ourselves!" Sonic cheered and ran into the dance floor. Amy ran after him.

"So… Maria… wanna dance together?" Shadow said shyly. Maria's answer was her pulling him into the dance floor.

"I haven't got anyone…" Tails said, sitting down looking lonely. All of his friends had partners, Cream was at home, Tails looked up as Lucy walked over to him.

"Wanna dance, I'm alone too?" Lucy said, Tails stood up, she took his hand and they went into the dance floor together.

It was a night to remember… only exams were left now.

School was over now for them, they had study leave. Shadow and Maria were sitting in their room together, cuddling on Maria's bed late at night. "Think you're going to do well in the exams?" Shadow asked.

"Sure I am, I'm pretty sure you will too Shadow." Maria said confidently. Shadow smiled, he looked up to see something dark and purple materialising.

"YOU!" Shadow exclaimed, it was Mephiles, looking as evil as before. Shadow leaped at him, Mephiles clicked his fingers and Shadow stopped.

"I'd be careful if I were you Shadow… get any closer and Maria will suffer." he said menacingly. Maria began to shake with fear.

"Don't worry Maria, I wont get any closer to him…" Shadow said. "Chao-"

"And DON'T try chaos spear earthier." he purred. Shadow didn't know what to do now, "Now, I'm here, so you can bother suffer together… I hate you both…"Shadow ran to protect Maria,

"Stay away from us, at least leave Maria alone!" Shadow yelled, he sounded desperate too, he didn't want Maria to get hurt.

"But that's it Shadow… if SHE is suffering, then so are you!" Mephiles cackled and clicked his fingers,

"MARIA!" Shadow cried, Maria was silent, "What did you do to her!" Maria groaned and crossed her legs. "You did it again!" Shadow threw a chaos spear at him, but Mephiles sent a counter attack so Shadow got the pain. Maria tried to get to the toilet but Mephiles wouldn't let them out. "You let her past!" Shadow growled. He jumped on top of Mephiles, "I hate you!" he punched him down, and pulled Mephiles hands behind his back, and stood on his legs.

"Ugh! Stop it hedgehog, this is very uncomfortable!" Mephiles ordered.

"Okay Mephiles, but you need to do a simple favour for me."

"What is it?" Mephiles sighed,

"You enter the others' dreams, and show them, what The Commander did to me. Oh, and tell The Commander you've done it… he'll get hatred from everyone." Shadow sneered.

"Oh, I'd love to do that." Mephiles purred. "For once hedgehog, we agree on something." Mephiles said, Shadow let him up. "It'll be done by morning… sweet dreams…" he said and walked out, going through the door.

"Shadow…" Maria groaned.

"Yes Maria?" Shadow asked. "Oh, you gotta go." Shadow said and stepped out of the way of the door for he to get past. Shadow got into bed hoping Mephiles would keep his promise.

Maria came back in to see Shadow sleeping already. "Guess you don't' wanna cuddle anymore." she smiled, he looked so cute when he was asleep. He kissed him on the fore head and got into her own bed.

The next morning, everyone woke up in a shock and ran to Shadow's bedroom door. "Shadow, we all know what happened to you" Rouge called, they all came in. Shadow was still asleep.

"Huh?" he said sleepily. "Oh, yeah…" he smirked.

"Are okay?" they asked.

"Yeah, that was like, over a year ago…" Shadow's eyes narrowed. "I can't wait to see the look on his sorry face…" the phone rang. "Or the remorse in his voice!" he said , he ran to pick the phone up, he put it on loud speaker. Everyone came into the living room too, where the phone was and kept quiet. "Hello?" Shadow said.

"Hedgehog, I know what you did, rodent! You decided to team up with that demon you-"

"Yeah… no one's going to listen to you now." Shadow smiled.

"Shut up you disgusting rodent, I'm going to get down there and kick your ass! Then you'll be sorry! And don't try and tell you stupid friends either." he hissed.

"Hate to break it to you… but, everyone just heard what you said." Shadow said proudly, "Even Maria."

"HI!" everyone said, The Commander could hear.

"Now, leave us all alone, or we'll report you to the police… and don't give the excuse that you are the police, because that can all change…" Shadow smirked.

"F-fine… you're all free… especially you Shadow…" The Commander said, the sound of failure in his voice.

"BYE!" Shadow hung up, smiling at everyone in triumph. "Looks like we can stop worrying about him and finish out exams!" he said cheered. Maria hugged him tight,

"Looks like even Shadow get a happy ending." Sonic said cheerily.

"There are no exams for a few days, shall we go and celebrate?" Amy asked. Everyone all cheered, they were free.

So, they all passed their exams, this was their results.

Sonic: 3A*, 2B, 3C

Shadow: 8A*

Silver: 2A*, 5B, 1C

Knuckles: 3B, 5C

Tails: 7A8 1C

Amy: 5A, 3B

Maria: 5A*, 2A, 1C

Blaze: 2A*, 3A, 2B, 1C

Rouge: 2A*, 3A, 2B, 1C

Out of nowhere, Mephiles marks showed up, he got all A*, strange, he didn't even take the exams, oh well, he likes to haunt.

Now they were all free to go, Sonic and the others all went back to Mobius to finally live their lives and Shadow and Maria went to live on the Space Colony ARK, like they did before, giving Aby a visit at least once a month.

So I am happy to say they all passed and moved onto better things.

**It's over, but you can check out 'Sonic Goes To Secondary School Series Shorts' for deleted scenes, requests and new ideas. **

**Lucy Labrador **


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